''Lecanora confusa'' is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling),

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...

in the family

Lecanoraceae The Lecanoraceae are a family of lichenized fungi in the order Lecanorales. Species of this family have a widespread distribution. Taxonomy Lecanoraceae was circumscribed by German lichenologist Gustav Wilhelm Körber in 1855. Genera According ...

. It was described as new to science in 1955 by Swedish lichenologist Ove Almborn. It is a member of the

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

resembling ''

Lecanora polytropa ''Lecanora polytropa'', commonly known as the granite-speck rim lichen, is a species of saxicolous lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. A small, inconspicuous species that grows in the cracks of rock surfaces, it has a cosmopolitan distribution an ...

''. ''Lecanora confusa'' has a granular to

areolate Lichens are composite organisms made up of multiple species: a fungal partner, one or more photosynthetic partners, and sometimes a basidiomycete yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their ...

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...

that forms small, smooth, green to yellow-grey patches. Its

apothecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...

measure 0.4–0.7 mm, and have a pale yellowish-green, flat to convex . Its

ascospore An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or s ...

s have a narrow

ellipsoid An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the ...

al shape and measure 10–14 by 4–5 μm. The lichen contains several

lichen product Lichen products, also known as lichen substances, are organic compounds produced by a lichen. Specifically, they are secondary metabolites. Lichen products are represented in several different chemical classes, including terpenoids, orcinol deriva ...

usnic acid Usnic acid is a naturally occurring dibenzofuran derivative found in several lichen species with the formula C18H16O7. It was first isolated by German scientist W. Knop in 1844 and first synthesized between 1933-1937 by Curd and Robertson. Usnic a ...

, zeorin, thiophanic acid, arthothelin, and some other

xanthone Xanthone is an organic compound with the molecular formula O 6H4CO. It is a white solid. In 1939, xanthone was introduced as an insecticide and it currently finds uses as Insecticide, ovicide for codling moth eggs and as a larvicide. Xanthone ...

compounds. ''Lecanora confusa'' is widespread in Northern and Western Europe, with a range extending to southern

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

. It also occurs in North America and in

Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of List of islands in the At ...

. It grows on the bark of twigs and branches of

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

shrubs and trees, and occasionally on

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

, especially in coastal areas.

References

confusa Lichen species Lichens described in 1955 Lichens of Southwestern Europe Lichens of Northern Europe Lichens of Central Europe Lichens of Macaronesia Lichens of North America {{Lecanorales-stub

See also

References